Creating Consistent Customer Delight

A Clever Email Marketing Example

I am a quick reader and I read and quickly delete many of the emails that jump into my inbox. Unless they attract my attention they are quickly gone. Craig from Tech Precision sent an email this week that I thought was very clever. I want to share it with you. Note they don’t know that I am publishing this so this is not a testimonial but a shout out to clever marketing.

You may have watched:Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Matrix Reloaded

You may have been:Using MySpace – the big thing before Facebook.
Using a new ipod – First 1 million sold – April 2003
or just started using iTunes downloads – launched 2003
Or may have just started playing with Linkedin – Launched 2003
Or purchased the last production of the original VW beetle, number 21,529,464 – Mexico 2003

Many would have just installed Windows Server 2003…

Do you still have Windows Server 2003? Here are 5 reasons why you could stick with this old software:

Compatibility issues – live on the edge

In its recent alert, US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness team) warned that not upgrading from Windows Server 2003 could cause software and hardware compatibility issues, as most new applications will not be built for the operating system.

From a security perspective, that lack of compatibility can cause problems as older apps will need to be carefully isolated thoughtfully from the environment in order to be secure.

So don’t upgrade – live on the edge and see if your software keeps working with future updates. What’s the down side?

Opening the floodgates – challenge the nasties of the internet.

Security experts agree the big-picture challenge for companies is that Windows Server 2003 vulnerabilities open the door for threats to the rest of the environment. This means other areas of your system that are thought to be secure might no longer be.

“If there’s a breach in one of those dozens and dozens of applications (running on the Server 2003) that could be exploited, then that could be, in effect, passed on to the other applications that could be secure” Samad Ali Vice president of HP Solutions at Logicalis US said.

So don’t do it – again live on the edge – challenge the nasties of the internet world to see if they can cause your business a problem. What’s the down side?

Compliance – sneak it through the next audit?

While not a security vulnerability itself, businesses who must comply with regulatory compliance standards face extra security challengers by not upgrading Server 2003.

As security and compliance are usually tied tightly together, opening a major security vulnerability into a company’s environment could automatically violate compliance regulations, and put it in danger of earning a hefty fine.

So don’t do it – if you are in a heavily regulated industry do you really have to follow the rules? Couldn’t you sneak it through the next audit?

Old Malware – take a chance.

It’s not just new malware threats that face those who don’t upgrade from Server 2003. There are also old, lingering threats that have been upgraded to exploit the systems – this coming from security experts.

This is a trend that has been seen again and again in the security industry as businesses and users continually fail to take measures to wrap secure policies around their systems.

So don’t do it – the chances of malware sneaking into your system and wiping out the business shouldn’t worry you that much. Should it?

Patched Vulnerabilities – It can’t impact your business to much, could it?

At its most basic level, the end of support date for Windows Server 2003 means an end to regular patches for known vulnerabilities, resulting in an “elevated risk to cybersecurity dangers,” according to a November US-CERT alert.

For perspective Microsoft issued 61 security bulletins for the technology in 2014 and has already issued 25 security bulletins since the beginning of this year.

“Computers running the Windows Server 2003 operating system will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risk of viruses and other security threats. Negative consequences could include loss of confidentially, integrity and or availability of data, system resources and business assets,” the alert said.

Again do nothing – the server will continue to work just you are more exposed to attacks. It can’t impact your business to much could it?

Why so much Sarcasm?

In the IT industry you often hear about fear uncertainty and doubt. We only have ourselves within the industry to blame because this is often presented to clients in areas where it’s perhaps not so needed. I apologise for some of my sarcasm in this email-update.

The idea for using this methodology in this update is because staying with Server 2003 is going to cause your business future issues and should you really need to be planning to do something before the business becomes exposed and the issues possibly end up costing you much more. It’s not a matter of might something happen – it’s a matter of when something will happen.

So to be clear:

“After July 14, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates for any version of Windows Server 2003. If you are still running Windows Server 2003 in your datacentre, you need to take steps now to plan and execute a migration strategy to protect your infrastructure.”

Are you confident? Are you making the right changes? Do you need to embrace change?